These notes were prompted by a discussion on the newsgroup rec.games.frp.misc. They are geared towards writing game rules, so most of the examples involve game rules. However, these techniques apply to writing instructions and tutorials in general.
- Talk to the reader
- Personally, I feel that if you talk to the reader as an individual, they take in more of your instructions. And when you’re talking directly to your reader, you don’t have to worry about their gender.
- Use specific examples
- If you are describing what happens to people in general, you need to use non-gendered text. If you are talking about what would happen to Frank the Barbarian or Melinda the Ranger, you can use Frank or Melinda’s gender. Frank and Melinda also have players: Tony Corman and Sandy Giles.
- Talk about everyone
- If you can’t talk to the reader and you can’t use a specific example, consider that you’re probably talking about a group of people.
- Tighten your prose
- Lots of pronouns referring back to an original noun can be an indication of too many sentences. Instead of saying “Take, for example, a character with a 15 intelligence. He can learn 42 languages. He can dance a jig at +5,” try saying “For example, a character with a 15 intelligence can learn 42 languages and dance a jig at +5”.
- Use the non-plural “they”.
- Under some circumstances, “they” can refer back to non-plural subjects:
- The psychology of the matter
- You can, of course, write with whatever words you wish to use. If you wish to be understood, however, you will use words that other people understand as you meant them to be understood. If you use the word “he” to mean men and women, you are miscommunicating. And if you are producing a product for sale or other profit, you are losing customers and users.
- Rules of English vs. usage of English
- While it is true that some rules of English state that “he” is gender-neutral, in practice this is not the case.
- More Information
- You might also want to read what Cecil Adams has to say on the subject at http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_245b.html
- Gender Neutral Instructions (full HTML)
- HTML version of Gender Neutral Instructions
- Gender Neutral Instructions (full PDF) (139.6 KB)
- PDF version of Gender Neutral Instructions
- Gender Neutral Instructions (full RTF)
- RTF version of Gender Neutral Instructions
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